Adidas defends its stripes: sues Thom Browne for brand image infringement

 Madrid - The German firm specialized in the commercialization of sportswear and sports articles Adidas, filed a lawsuit against the New York fashion firm Thom Browne last week before the Federal District Court of the New York district for violation of brand image, after considering that the American fashion house consciously imitates on its garments one of the most distinctive elements of the firm: the three stripes that, stand out from Adidas, have been using as their own part of their  designs in different combinations and patterns indiscriminately since 1950. techwadia

As they wielded in their interpellation before the Federal Court of New York from the multinational sports fashion company, Thom Browne, who on his models applies designs in forms of patterns that go from two to four stripes as details, does nothing but “ imitate the Adidas Three Stripes brand in a way that is likely to cause consumer confusion and mislead the public as to the origin, endorsement, association or affiliation ”between the two trademarks.

Request for the seizure and destruction of all Thom Browne garments that infringe Adidas trademark rights

Regarding this series of interpretations, from Adidas they maintain that the actions carried out by the American firm on the different designs of its sportswear and casual fashion lines, including all kinds of sports pants and decorated sweatshirts with different patterns of horizontal and / or vertical stripes, infringe your rights as a registered trademark under the provisions of the Lanham Act of 1946, the federal law responsible for ensuring the protection of trademarks, as well as what is contemplated by different legal regulations related to the state of New York. For what they argue, as a strong point of demand, where Adidas has a long history of models in which it has made use of the three stripes as distinctive iconography of its designs since the 1950s in relation to footwear, and a decade later on garments and clothing designs. Three stripes that in the same way evolved adding a greater number of stripes and motifs as of 1994, in what they would place as the precedent to the variations, beyond the number three, of which the designs of Thom Browne show.

As an action to resolve the conflict, the German multinational asks the Court to prevent the New York firm from selling clothing with references to its stripes, and to order the company to "deliver for seizure and destruction" of all clothing and the footwear whose designs from Adidas are in disagreement.

Thom Browne defends himself: “they gave us their consent greater than a decade ago”

Founded in New York via the American fashion designer Thom Browne around 2001, considering that then, and thanks to the fulfillment of the creations of the creative, a normal collaborator of favor firms consisting of Brooks Brother or Moncler, the New York style company has been reaching carve out a growing area of interest within the style-luxury zone. So plenty so, as to arouse the interest of the Italian Ermenegildo Zegna Group, which, in a quest to redefine its audiences determined to collect eighty five percentage of the brand during the beyond 12 months of 2018. Operation regardless of which each groups have remained fully separate groups, in the case of Browne beneath the route of the identical control group that had been using their increase, with Thom Browne main the innovative place,

Bazan, who landed within the New York company in May 2016 from Alexander Wang and thanks to whose address the fashion residence has controlled to shoot its turnover to two hundred million bucks, became exactly in rate of responding to the lawsuit filed by using Adidas. Multinational with which, he emphasizes, they had been protecting meetings for greater than a decade so that you can avoid a scenario such as the one provided.

"We are satisfied that we are proper and we're confident of the a hit outcome of the case, when you consider that we have acted honorably for the duration of this time," stated Bazan in a declaration to the US media Wwd. Exposition utilized by the CEO of Thom Browne to factor out that “what's essential is to remember the fact that Adidas gave its consent to Thom Browne greater than 10 years in the past, and actually it changed into the only that recommended to Thom that he add a extra stripe, to attain four o'clock, on the sleeves or on the pants ”, some thing that would be“ Ok for Adidas ”. "Since that time, greater than a decade in the past, Adidas in no way gave Thom Browne any other word."During all this time, “it is more than reasonable to think that Adidas, having expressed a first concern about those three stripes that Thom Browne raised, has been in charge of closely following everything that Thom has been doing since then”, since “Adidas Like all good brands, it monitors the market ”. But nevertheless it has not been “until now, with Thom finally achieving some real success”, we must not forget that, among others, he managed to dress Michele Obama during the ceremony of the second investiture of former US President Barack Obama, when “Adidas he has decided to show a completely different behavior ”.

"We cannot guess why Adidas is acting in this way at the moment," adds Bazan, in what the European company would justify in the approach of the American company towards a greater development of its sports and casual lines, through collections such as that capsule. solidarity that they launched last October 2020 together with FC Barcelona, ​​at a time when athleisure aesthetics is also more trending than ever. In any case, and while waiting to present its own arguments before the Court, Bazan emphasizes that "there have been continuous discussions to try to resolve the issue amicably, but Adidas, without prior notice, withdrew from the negotiations and filed this lawsuit" .

"In perspective, it seems to us that Adidas is trying to act like Goliath against us, trying to present a case that, in our opinion, has little foundation", since the two firms are "markedly different" due, among other issues, to the positioning of their products. "They have given their consent for 12 years and now they are trying to change their mind", and "the court will not allow it" and "neither will the consumers", adds Bazan, for whom the lawsuit is nothing more than "an attempt to violate the law" in his favor by Adidas.